Six organizations are partners in this project and more than 1000 participants are involved in activities, VET teachers/trainers and students. Each participating partner presented the difficulties their countries were facing concerning vocational training and the gap between formal training and the needs expressed by the companies in terms of the quality of job applicants. All the partners involved in this project initially or at a later date, identified the need of their training staff to improve their skills in using digital tools and VET teaching skills, practically oriented. As our organizations aim to the professional preparation of the trainees as future human resources for technical business domains, we need to dedicate our teaching/training to specific contents adapted to such requirements; VET providers and companies alike reaffirm that a strong correlation between the educational components and the needs of the labour market in the mechatronics field are obligatory in a gradually more technologized working environment. INTEMPO project will strive to provide a new outlook on the school curricula and training requirements in terms of specialization.The general objective of the partnership is to improve VET-teachers’ skills and competences so that their teaching respond to the needs stated above. With INTEMPO, the teachers/trainers will learn to adapt their methods and use technology in classroom for a modern innovative approach of VET teaching; this will result in the increase employability of students/trainees in European labour market. Several strategic instruments and methodologies will be used for reaching these targets.They will be structured in project specific objectives and assigned to the different partners as well as the different events throughout the project. Firstly we will produce a Curricular Auxiliary for Mechatronics, a collection of teaching materials resulted from cooperation and joint work. The Auxiliary, adapted to the educational needs of the students as well as the requirements of the labour market, will provide support for VET lessons for an important number of teachers/trainers as it will be distributed and disseminated in the VET teacher community(local and European). Secondly, the Guideline for Mechatronics is designed as a collaborative material resulted from constant exchange of good practices and experimental lessons within the six participating organizations; the guide will comprise a collection of methodologies, strategies, innovative teaching resources: digital tools - softwares, Web 2.0, tutorials, practical application, which will help VET teachers/trainers in their everyday activities in the classroom and will improve the quality of teaching in the partner organizations, making technical subjects more attractive and more desirable for students.The planned activities are considered so that they respond to the objectives set within the partnership and the achievement of results; activities set for project management (monitor, evaluation, dissemination); 2 short-term joint staff training activities will focus on the use of web tools and the use of interactive methods in the teaching process.The participants will learn new teaching methods and how to use digital tools during the lessons on mechatronics /automotive, will carry out debates, assess teaching materials/strategies/methods/teaching tools;4 transnational meetings will give occasion for exchanging teaching methods and good practices, comparing didactic contents, training, teaching and learning in simulation laboratories, sharing training materials and producing the project results, outcomes, evaluation, dissemination;activities connected to teaching practice: gathering teaching methods, recorded and experimental lessons, strategies. Other purposes of the meetings are: to monitor the implementation of the project activities, to assess the level of achievement with respect to the established objectives and results of the partnership, to provide a framework for better acquaintance (school systems, methods and procedures used in classroom, culture and traditions), exchange of good practices and information;the multiplier events will be organized as workshops addressed to teachers/trainers by each of the participating organization and will have as a main purpose the presentation of the Guideline on Mechatronics.The website together with the Newsletters (4 issues) and the brochure will also ensure the dissemination of all activities, results and products of the partnership.The website will provide updated information as well as free access to the materials uploaded (auxiliary, guideline, newsletter, logo, cultural information about the countries).Communication will be carried out by means of email, the website and the social network page (facebook, twitter), in English.The partnership will strive to ensure open access to all website visitors and will encourage users by providing free downloadable materials.
The Intempo project is the result of the joint effort of six European organizations aiming to develop innovative approaches in teaching mechatronic subjects in a more practically oriented way. The project filled the growing need expressed by the constantly expanding companies in this sector for skilled and qualified workforce. Each organization employ activities related to automotive sector, either in formal education path (i.e. schools) or vocational training (i.e. training centres, consortium), providing a link between education providers and the labour market, therefore a strong correlation between the educational component and the specific need of companies in the automotive sector was essential. The need of quality training and preparation of students and trainees for a successful integration on the labour market as well as a different outlook on the curricula stood at the core of the Intempo project. The partnership set the general objective in order to cover the common needs identified by the organizations: to improve VET-teachers’ skills and competences so that they are able to adapt in an innovative way the teaching methods and make use of technology during VET learning sessions, resulting in increasing employability of students/trainees in the European automotive sector. Several strategic instruments and methodologies were used in order to reach those targets.They were structured in project specific objectives and assigned to the different partners as well as the different events throughout the project. One of the results of the project is the Curricular Auxiliary for Mechatronics, a collection of teaching materials resulted from cooperation and joint work. The Auxiliary, adapted to the educational needs of the students as well as the requirements of the labour market has provided support for VET lessons for an important number of teachers/trainers; it has been distributed and disseminated in the VET teacher community(local and European) and will remain available on the project website for all those interested. The Guideline for Mechatronics was designed as a collaborative material resulted from constant exchange of good practices and experimental lessons within the six participating organizations; the guide consists of a collection of methodologies, strategies, innovative teaching resources: digital tools - software, Web 2.0, tutorials, practical application, which provide help for VET teachers/trainers in their everyday activities in the classroom and improve the quality of teaching in the partner organizations, making technical subjects more attractive and more desirable for students. The activities were correlated with the specific objectives and focussed on the achievement of results; activities set for project management (monitor, evaluation, dissemination); 2 short-term joint staff training activities focussed on the use of web tools and the use of interactive methods in the teaching process.The participants learnt new teaching methods and how to use digital tools during the lessons on mechatronics /automotive, debated on, assessed teaching materials/strategies/methods/teaching tools;during the 4 transnational meetings exchange of teaching methods and good practices were carried out, comparing didactic contents, training, teaching and learning in laboratories, sharing training materials and producing the project results, outcomes, evaluation, dissemination;activities connected to teaching practice: gathering teaching methods, recorded and experimental lessons, strategies. Other purposes of the meetings involved monitoring the implementation of the project activities,assessing the level of achievement with respect to the established objectives and results of the partnership, to provide a framework for better acquaintance (school systems, methods and procedures used in classroom, culture and traditions) exchange of good practices and information;the multiplier events were organized as workshops addressed to teachers/trainers by each of the participating organization and had as a main purpose the presentation of the Guideline on Mechatronics.The website together with the Newsletters (4 issues) and the brochure ensured the dissemination of all activities, results and products of the partnership.The website provides updated information as well as free access to the materials uploaded (auxiliary, guideline, newsletter, logo, cultural information about the countries), which will be available indefinitely. Communication was carried out by means of email, the website and the social network page (facebook, twitter), in English.The partnership strives to ensure open access to all website visitors and encourage users by providing free downloadable materials. In the long run the automotive businesses and education organizations will have a wider perspective on the needs of qualifications and cooperate in finding solutions together in terms of adapting the curriculum or the teaching approach.